On July 20, 2013, Kevin Walker shot siblings Jamie Jenkins and Jamal Jenkins over an argument between his girlfriend and Jamie, “a fight he wasn’t even part of,” Assitant U.S. Attorney Demian Ahn argued as Walker’s trial opened Tuesday.
“The last thing [Jamie] ever did on this earth was to take a bullet for Jamal,” Ahn said.
Then “without any warning to his family, no prospects for a job, without even his ID,” the prosecutor continued, Walker fled to North Carolina.
“He gave up on the life he had,” Ahn told the jury.
The defense tells a different story. According to the Galit Lipa, Walker’s attorney, the police investigation was “sloppy and ineffective.”
“The police took shortcuts, made assumptions and when they failed to investigate this case, they failed to learn who really shot Jamie and Jamal Jenkins,” Lip told the jury. “He did not shoot them and he is not guilty.”
On the night of the murder, Jamie Jenkins went to her cousin’s house crying that she had been robbed, according to AUSA Ahn. She told her cousin she thought Walker’s girlfriend’s son had something to do with it.
That cousin lived across the street from Walker and his girlfriend. When Walker’s girlfriend arrived home that night, Jenkins confronted her.
The two women fought in front of the cousin’s home. Jamal Jenkins and their cousin eventually helped break up the fight.
Jamal threatened to come back if Walker’s girlfriend didn’t return Jamie’s belongings, Ahn said. With that, the siblings turned and left.
Ahn said that the pair returned to the area a short while later because Jamie had lost her phone. When they didn’t find it in their cousin’s yard, they turned once more to leave.
That’s when Walker “stormed” out of his house and yelled at his girlfriend to tell him who threatened her.
“He was mad and he was armed,” Ahn said. “He continued moving towards Jamie and Jamal — his mind was made up.”
Walker pointed his gun at Jamal, but Jamie jumped in front to shield him.
“It was [Walker] who pulled the trigger that fired the bullet that bore into Jamie’s brain,” Ahn said. “The last thing Jamal ever did in life was turn and run. He ran as his sister’s body fell to the pavement.”
That’s when Ahn says Walker shot Jamal in the back.
When Jamal fell, Walker “stood over him and fired the gun again and again and again.”
The audio of the gunshots recorded by gunshot detection sensors echoed through the courtroom.
But defense attorneys argued that Walker had good reason to be angry.
When Jamal broke up the fight between Jamie and Walker’s girlfriend, he said, “I’m going to go home and get my gun and shoot whoever robbed my sister,” Lipa, Walker’s attorney, said.
“A few seconds later, they came back just as they had threatened to do,” she told the jury.
